Some fields of study recognize and account for differences between men and women better than others. Psychologists, for example, may choose different therapeutic techniques to address certain emotional issues with a man than with a woman. Personal trainers likewise may employ different physical training regimen for men than for women, and may have different target goals for cardiovascular and muscular development.
Some fields of medical study may even consider gender during diagnosis of an illness or injury, but most do not identify or consider gender differences in treatment protocols, medical implants, drug development, drug dosage and delivery, and the like. Instead, many treatments only account for differences based on body weight, or create distinctions only between infants, children and adults while ignoring potentially significant differences based on gender. In many instances, therefore, there has been little, if any, effort to refine medical science to account for differences between men and women.
One reason that medical science has not advanced to account for gender differences in treatment may be due in part to a widely held perception that sexual dimorphism is relatively low in humans when compared to other animals, and therefore the differences often are ignored or overlooked. Sexual dimorphism is the systematic difference in form between individuals of different gender in the same species. This may include differences in size, color, or the presence of gender defining body parts, such as horns or antlers. While in humans, the male and female forms are perceived differently, they tend to have a low level of sexual dimorphism when compared to other species. For example, the body masses of both male and female humans are approximately normally distributed.
However, despite this relative low-level sexual dimorphism when compared to other species, there are physiological, muscular, and skeletal differences in men and women that are of particular relevance to improved medical treatment. Many of these differences are present even between men and women of similar height, weight, and build, but currently are not taken into consideration when treating a patient. For example, the female brain has more intercellular connections than the male brain, which may account for why women generally are likely to recover more of their speech abilities after a stroke than men, yet medical treatment for men and women is virtually identical. Additionally, male bones tend to be larger in size, having greater lengths, thicknesses, and densities. Similarly, the joints in male and female bodies differ. For example, the notch width at the end of the femur in the knee joint tends to be wider in males than in females. Despite these differences, medical implants currently are limited to unisex designs. Further examples of differences between men and women may be found in metabolic rates, diurnal changes, range of motion, pH and hormonal changes, elasticity of body tissue, and susceptibility to diseases or medical conditions.
For example, males and females metabolize medications at different rates and react differently to different types of medications. As a result of these differences, females may metabolize some analgesics and adjuvant drugs at different rates than men, among them oxycodone, tramadol, fentanyl, bupivacaine, and diazepam. Similarly, males may respond more favorably to tricyclic agents and females may get greater relief from selective serotonin reuptake.
In spite of these differences, medical practitioners tend to treat male and female patients with a gender-neutral approach. At best, medicines may be prescribed based on weight or body mass index (BMI), without taking into account other, potentially more significant gender differences. Medical implants and instruments are provided in limited sizes (e.g., small, medium, and large), but each having similar geometric proportions, the same material construction, the same surface treatment, and the same therapeutic coating for men and women. In short, medical science has made little effort to account for many potentially significant gender differences.
Perhaps another reason gender differences have not been incorporated into medical science is the additional complexity it would introduce for patients and health professionals. It may be difficult, for example, for a doctor, nurse, or pharmacist to keep track of different gender-specific dosage amounts, dosage rates, drug combinations, and the like. Likewise, a couple, such as a husband and wife, where both are being treated for the same medical condition may become confused if presented with different medicines, or with different dosage instructions (e.g. dosage amounts, dosage frequency, etc.) for medicines with the same active ingredient. Additionally, if both patients are taking the same brand of medication, it may be difficult to distinguish each person's medicine from the other.
Regardless of the reason for the current state of medical science, it would be desirable to have more sophisticated medical treatments that better account for gender differences.